


Off Beat

by clusband



Category: Hiveswap
Genre: M/M, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-22
Updated: 2019-04-22
Packaged: 2020-01-23 15:42:16
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,695
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18552778
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/clusband/pseuds/clusband
Summary: Prompted from my tumblr: Mallek/ Lanque kiss in a closet, in a hot, stuffy room, at a party. Cleaned this up and gave it a proper ending!





	Off Beat

He’s been catching your eye all night.

Where all of the other trolls are moving with the music or with each other, he moves through them all alone, sluicing through the crowd like a gentle hand trailing through turbulent water. And though he’s off beat- the motions of his arms, his hips, swaying to his own rhythm- he doesn’t look out of place. It’s as if the music bends around him in his oversize hoodie, pushing and pulling the crowd around him.

It’s the most natural thing in the world to join him. You really can’t let him get away with that.

You lower your eyes at him, flirting, as your hands find his hips. You deliberately slow his pace to get him on beat and he twists and sways in your grasp, finding your leg between his and pulling his body flush to you. One point for him.

“You’re a terrible dancer,” you smirk into his ear. You keep your voice low, and you notice his shudder as you nose at the shell of his ear. He tries tripping you up in retaliation, his foot breaking the path of yours, but you’re prepared for it. You move him into a subtle dip, crowding his space and catching him around the waist as he stumbles to the side and gives you a face full of his bewildered expression. One point for you.

The song changes, the tempo’s increased. You run your hands up his back, sneaking one under his hoodie. He keeps his hands chastely around your biceps, giving you a smug smile, as if he can tell how badly you want him to touch you back. You don’t know why he’s affecting you so badly- his hoodie smells faintly like take out and he’s got an aura of smug, self-assuredness that you find infuriating. Intoxicating. Your mouth finds its way to his jaw and you nip the thin skin there.

You move against each other like this, for one song, then two. For eons, it feels like, but it's not enough. And he holds you, his head on your shoulder, his hands at your back.

One more song plays, the beat has slowed once more. He turns in your grasp, his back flush to your chest. His hips sway against yours, his body moves like water in your grasp. Intangible and untouchable and hot as hell. He brings his hand to your head, pulling your face to his neck. And you kiss him there, lighter and softer than snowfall. And you hold him, your hands running down his arms, down his waist until you find the patch of skin that he's revealed by lifting his arms. You rub little circles there with your index finger, moving your face into the shaved side of his head and doing everything in your power to suppress a purr.   

“Follow me,” he leans his head into you, impossibly close but not close enough, and he says it so quietly and sincerely hopeful that you hesitate. But it's not like you're keeping score or anything. He grabs you by the hand and leads you up the stairs.

The bathroom is filled with clowns doing who knows what. All of the respite blocks are either locked or filthy- not to your standards.

You spot an empty closet at the end of the hall- the slatted doors suggest the illusion of privacy without granting much of the real thing. Without thinking, you push him forward, using the advantage of surprise and your towering height to corral him inside. He stumbles, catching his fall roughly as his back and hands hit the back wall, and you close the door painfully against your finger in your haste. Damn.

You don’t have time to dwell on it, because he moves closer to you, his breath cool against your face. He leans in, closer and closer; you watch his eyes close. You close yours. But he doesn’t kiss you. You can feel the warmth of his smile against your face, his nose wrinkling against yours in delight.

You grab a fist full of his hoodie and pull him flush to you. Lanque Bombyx does not lose. He’s knocked off balance- forward, into you. You crush your lips against his, careful not to knock yourself out with the force of his stumble. He wraps his arms around your neck, leveraging your height to his advantage, pulling you down towards him to deepen the kiss, and you grab him by the waist to pull him up to you. You meet halfway this time.

You’re close to him, his body pressed against every inch of yours. You’re alone together. The sound of the music is far away, muffled between the floors and walls between you. It’s getting really hot in here- literally. Despite the slats in the closet door, the air isn’t really circulating around you. You think about removing your jacket. You think about removing his hoodie.

As you slant your lips insistently against his, you feel his sharp exhale against your face. With the sweat that’s covering the both of you, his breath feels unbelievably cool against your face. You pause.

“Do that again,” you demand. His hooded eyes find yours, and he smiles coquettishly before pursing his lips and blowing cool air against your sweat soaked face. You could cry with the comfort this gesture brings. Fuck, it really is hot in here- hotter now, with your combined body heats and your racing pulse. He laughs at your obvious relief, watching you fan your face, and you notice, for the first time, his features in the dim lighting of the closet you’ve found yourself in.

The sweat on his skin shines like stars, constellations that you could almost give name to. The light shining through the slats of the closet door frame his eyes, and his piercings glint at you, almost challenging, as his head moves away from you.

“My turn,” he says. He closes his eyes blissfully as you return the favor. His hair ruffles a bit with the stirrings of your breath. You draw your face closer to his, finding his lips with yours once more, before mouthing ‘let's go’ against his mouth.

* * *

Outside of the party, he's quiet, lacing his arm with yours as he leads you to the upper-class part of town. You take a good look at him- he's very obviously a little sleepy. His eyes blink slowly, like it's taking effort to keep them open. You don't really know what to talk about, or what to... do.  Is this awkward? You don't feel awkward, even though you just spent the last hour grinding on him then making out in a closet. You're very obviously about to sleep together- should you even be trying to make conversation at all? The idea hits you that you may never see him again with a grip of anxiety tight around your heart. This frustrates you. You wonder for the second time this evening if you're affecting him the way he's affecting you. You wonder if he'll think about you after tonight. You hate what he's doing to you- resentment starts to bubble up in your chest, in your throat, threatening to spill past your lips like acid. But you know it's not real anger. Not at him, anyway. This feeling is familiar. You're fond of him. 

Damn.

"Are you hungry?" He snaps you out of your thoughts right as you come to this conclusion. Hungry? What? Is he making another pass at you? You come back to yourself, taking in your surroundings. Sandwiched between two hive-stems is the most narrow storefront you've ever seen, roughly 10 feet wide but, amusingly, about 30 feet deep like a hallway. You want to shake your head no, you just want to get on with the evening, but the loud grumble of your stomach interrupts you. He gives you a knowing smile, tilting his head at you as he holds open the door for you. 

Ordering the pizza becomes more of an ordeal than you would have bargained for. He wants very thick crust, you want very thin crust. He wants to load it up with toppings, you want to keep it simple. He tries to convince you to get pineapple as a topping and you almost start a real fight with him, here and now in this narrow pizza place. 

Speaking of narrow, you find that you have to stand very close to him. It's definitely got everything to do with how packed this place is (you have to nearly shout into his ear to bicker with him over the pizza), and how close the walls are (and you're close to him, close enough to feel his body heat, close enough to kiss him, but you don't). You scrutinize the order screen over his shoulder, yelling at him when he tries to add sausage AND pepperoni AND spicy simmered grubs to the pizza ( _"Pick **one**!"_ you yell over the din of the crowd, and he pretends not to hear you, adding spinach as if to placate you before placing the order and searching the crowd for an empty table). 

Right in the deepest depths of the restaurant, in the corner in the very back, are two stools and an empty space at the bar. He pulls you here, grabbing you by the arm and glancing back at you as if challenging you to say something about the crowd, the noise. You are very noticeably out of your element- you feel that your shoulders are tense, and make an effort to relax, arranging your expression very carefully on your face to show him you can do this. You can fit into his life. Ugh- you shake that last thought away with a scowl.

As he sits down, pulling you with him, you lament the loss of his hand around your arm. He looks at you, expectant. You look at him, awkward. 

"I'm Mallek," he says. He offers his hand and it only feels half sarcastic. You hadn't even realized that you didn't exchange names yet, so caught up in your thoughts as you were.

"Lanque," you reply, taking his hand. You notice that he grimaces a little bit at this whole exchange, and maybe he feels just as awkward about this whole thing as you do. The thought gives you pause, and you hit the reset button, coming fully back to yourself. You couldn't live with yourself if you let this crash and burn all around you.

"Come here often?" you ask, raising an eyebrow at him and nodding to the crowd behind you. 

"Only when I'm hungry," he says, lowering his eyes at you, giving you a very obvious once over. It's so startling, almost slimy, and so very not in character for him that you let out a startled laugh- what is this, a low budget porno? You hear him snort too, and realize belatedly that he was being silly, trying to help you relax. You wonder how uptight you must look to him. 

And just like that, you've found your previous rapport with him again. His foot taps you on the shin. He lays his head on one palm as your eyes meet his. The pizza is set very tactlessly between you, piled high with all of the different nonsense that he thinks makes for a good meal. 

Mallek, as it turns out, is a very messy eater. He's gone through two slices before you're even halfway done with your first. Although, to be fair, with the myriad of toppings that you have to navigate your way around, it's a miracle that you've managed to take even a single bite. A grub drops off the side of your slice as you take another bite, and he's quick to grab it off your plate, popping it into his mouth without even looking at you. You should be furious- if you have to deal with a messy pizza you should at least be able to enjoy the whole thing- but you just... aren't. Is this... are you having a good time? The miracles are never ending, it seems.  

"That how you want to play?" you ask him, leaning forward as he grabs another slice. As deft and quick as a cat, you swipe one of the grubs off of his slice and take a bite out of it, savoring the spicy salty taste of it. As luck would have it, that particular grub was crucial to the structural integrity of the pizza. With great horror, you watch as the sausages lean left, pulling the cheese with them off the pizza like a life line in slow motion. It's like watching a horror movie, you can't look away. The solid, wet 'twhwap' of the cheese/ toppings hitting the plate seems to hit your ears louder than anything else in this restaurant. You almost can't meet Mallek's gaze.

First you hear a sniffle- _is he really crying over pizza?_ you think, looking up- then, as you catch his expression, he starts laughing in earnest. You notice one of his teeth is a little bit longer than the others, reflecting the wavy shape of his sign. It's very cute.

"Oh, nice one," he continues laughing, dipping his finger in some sauce and flicking it your way. The sauce hits your cheek. You wipe it away, hiding your smile. 

* * *

Mallek's hive is... You've never seen anything like it. To say you're feeling a little intimidated is an understatement- this is opposite of everything you've ever known as home. Where the caverns are deep underground, dark and well worn and humid, his hive towers over you so high that you feel a little dizzy looking up at it. The lights of the city are reflected in the glass, and the steel is so cold and dark to be almost impersonal. You can't wait to get inside.

It turns out that walking into the front door doesn't even lead you to his hive proper- when you step through the double doors, you step inside an elevator. Mallek has to input a code that looks so long and complicated that you wonder if he's maybe messing with you. But the elevator lights up a little brighter when he's done, and the doors close behind you. You're sweating, it's very claustrophobic in here. You get a little anxiety- what if you suffocate? What if you get stuck here? What if you fall to your deaths?

But it's over quickly, you feel the momentum of the elevator coming to a stop under your feet and in your gut, and you take a deep breath. Mallek's hands are on your belly, so soft that it startles you, as he starts pushing you back out of the elevator and into his hive. You hadn't even realized that you closed your eyes.

"You alright?" he asks you gently. You open your eyes to his concerned face, watching the elevator doors close behind him with a soft whoosh. You don't really know if you want to get this vulnerable with him right now- this is all moving so fast around you, it feels like you can't keep up.

But there is one thing you know how to do, one thing that might bring you up to speed. You bring your hands to his hips- already, you're affecting him, his posture straightening, his face drawing close to yours. You corral him back, kissing him lightly, chastely, on his cheek, the side of his mouth, and once on his lips until you feel the thud of his back against the wall. 

His hands have wrapped around your arms, one finger sneaking it's way up under your sleeve and rubbing comforting figure eights around the bones in your wrist. He seems content to let you lead- maybe he caught on that you're still figuring this out. He's kind, you think. He's patient, and you're thankful for it. You kiss him, soft and slow in the quiet in his hive, the sounds of traffic and the hustle and bustle of a busy city sounding small and faraway from outside. You move your hands from his hips to his mid back, pulling him closer to you as you deepen the kiss. He hums against your mouth, removing his arms from your wrists to let you take off his hoodie. 

You take your time with him- sliding your hands under his hoodie and his shirt both, holding him briefly around the waist, both of your hands solid against him. He's only a caste above you, but he feels so cold. You almost feel guilty taking his clothes off.

That thought comes crashing to an end when Mallek pulls you closer to him, slotting his leg between yours just like he did earlier at the party. He grinds against your leg, you find your rhythm again- fast and desperate for each other, against each other. You press your claws into the soft skin of his waist before pulling his clothes all the way off him, removing your mouth from his as he hums in pleasure once more. He brings his mouth to your neck, insistent, as he unbuttons your shirt. You run your hands down his back, up and down, soothing.

"This okay?" he asks you, his voice so soft and so warm that you could curl up and sleep in it. You nod at him, grabbing him by the belt loops, providing more pressure for him to grind against you, and he gasps, cool against your neck. Your shirt has been unbuttoned completely now- his hands are on your shoulders to push it off you.

He kisses you once, right on the hollow of your throat, then several times more, trailing between your pecs and then against one of the scars on your chest, before you pull him up you kiss you again. You sneak your tongue in his mouth right as you sneak your hand into his pants, past his slowly emerging bulge to find the moist heat of his nook. But you don't press into him yet, searching for his pleasure nub then rubbing the skin around it.

The noises he makes are sweeter than any song, sounding both excited and relieved. You smirk into the shaved sides of his head as he leans his head on your shoulder, letting you take some of his weight as he wraps his arms around your waist, hands cool between your shoulder blades. _Well, go big or go home_ , you think, grabbing him from under his legs to hold him against you, pressing him into the wall so that the only thing he can feel is your heat, your skin, your mouth and hands. You have to go through some real cirque du soleil bullshit to get his pants off, but, thankfully, he doesn't seem to mind, moaning against the skin of your shoulder as his nook gets wet enough to drip onto your hand, down your wrist and arm and onto the floor. And you discover that Mallek is messy here, like this, as well. 

You remove your hand from his nook to pull your pants down- just enough to release your bulge. The two of you have to readjust- his arms coming around your shoulders to lift himself a little higher, your hands holding him firmer under his thighs to help keep him there, and his legs wrapping around you to stay balanced. You kiss him, slow and deep, as you sink into him.

He hums a pleased little sound, almost a laugh, as you bottom out inside him, his hand stroking your hair as he kisses you on the cheek. It's stupid how close you are already, after being wound up at the party. After becoming so fond of him. You thrust shallowly into him, and he grabs you tighter, sinking the tips of his claws into your skin, digging his heels into the small of your back to keep you close to him. 

"That feel good?" you ask him, trailing your teeth along his neck, finding his pulse point and licking the thin skin there. He doesn't answer, sighing out a little _'oh!'_ as you thrust into him once more. You grab him under the thighs with both hands as he clenches around you- he's so wet that you can barely believe it.

His own hand comes between you to stroke his bulge- the motion makes his nook tighten around you and you're so, so close that you almost ask him to stop. You really don't want this to be over. You kiss him again, trying to convey with your actions what your lips could never say. _I like you,_ you kiss him. _I want this,_  your bulge stills inside him as he comes, the force of his orgasm drawing you deeper than you thought possible. _Remember me,_ you bite into his neck as his hands find the wall, leveraging himself in order to press his entire body against yours. You scramble to pull yourself out of him, close to coming. Right as you slide out all of the way, the elevator doors open- Mallek must have accidentally pressed one of the buttons with his hands pressing against the wall.   

You try your best not to fall, but he clings tighter to you as you stumble forward, throwing you off balance. You drop him gracelessly onto the floor, doing everything in your power to land next to him instead of on top of him. 

He's laughing before you even fall completely, your breath leaving you all in a rush as you finally hit the ground hard. His arms pull you towards him as you start laughing too- he's breathless and the tears are streaming down his face. You kiss his tears away, laughter starting anew as you catch his eye.

In moments, the two of you have relaxed, snuggling on the floor together. You lay your head on his shoulder as he draws his arm around you.

"What do you like to eat for breakfast?" he asks, voice heavy with sleep. And you hide your smile in his neck one last time.

**Author's Note:**

> PLEASE check out this excellent art that my friend Anike made about the first part of this fic- it's so good!: http://kandayuu.tumblr.com/post/184044789684/yo-clusband-i-dug-ur-fic-i-thought-it-was


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